Alf Goullet (5 April 1891 – 11 March 1995) was an Australian cyclist who won more than 400 races on three continents, including 15 six-day races. He set world records from two-thirds of a mile to 50 miles, and the record for the distance ridden in a six-day race.
Biography
Career
Goullet – pronounced to rhyme with roulette – was born in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia, and grew up in Emu, north of Melbourne. He created a cycling track at home by leading a horse as it dragged a log to clear the grass. He made a name in Australia and was contracted to ride in the United States. He landed at New York in winter 1910 "in a snowstorm, wearing a sleeveless shirt and a straw hat because it was summer at home." He was 19. He settled in Newark and raced on outdoor tracks set in parks and sports grounds.
In Salt Lake City in 1912, he set world records at two-thirds of a mile, three-quarters of a mile and a mile. A reporter there wrote:
That winter, Goullet won the first Paris six-day race, paired with Joe Fogler of Brooklyn. He returned to America, and in November 1914 won the six-day at Madison Square Garden, paired with another Australian, Alfred Grenda. The they covered is still a record. Goullet rode the last hour of the race – a six-day relay race – without Grenda's help. His partner had appendicitis.
He wrote in the Saturday Evening Post after his first six-day race in New York:
Goullet took American nationality in 1916. He joined the US Navy when the US joined World War I in 1917, but never left the country.
Goullet was so popular in the 1920s that he was paid $1,000 a day. Historian Peter Nye says a National Football League franchise could be bought at the time for a few hundred dollars. National Football League teams sold for $100 each in the 1920s, making all 11 teams together worth $1100. Goullet made 10 times as much. Such was the crowd – 15,000 – to see him at Madison Square Garden in 1921 that firemen surrounded the building to stop gatecrashers. The New York Times said: "Goullet won the race through the greatest exhibition of sustained speed ever known in history." A Tour de France rider, Maurice Brocco, and he picked up $50,000, , on the last night. Damon Runyon wrote in The New York Times that Goullet was the king of six-day racers, proclaiming, "Long live the king!"
By 1925, Goullet had won around 400 races, established six world records and won the New York six-day race eight times.
Later life and recognition
Goullet retired at 34, recently married, after that December's race at Madison Square Garden. The organisers paid him an appearance fee of $10,000. He estimated he earned $100,000 from cycling at a time when a manual worker brought home $5 a day. At his peak, he earned more than the $20,000 paid to baseball's Babe Ruth in the year he hit 54 home runs for the Yankees. He began selling life insurance and owned and ran a skating rink in Wayne Township.
He was inducted into the Madison Square Garden Hall of Fame in 1968, then flew to Melbourne – his first trip to Australia in 75 years – to join the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1986. He was enrolled in the US Bicycling Hall of Fame in May 1988.
He died in a nursing home aged 103 in Toms River, New Jersey. He was survived by his son, Richard, daughter Suzanne, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
In 2016, he was posthumously inducted into the Cycling Australia Hall of Fame.
Palmarès
1909
National sprint champion
1912
Melbourne six-day, with Paddy Hehir
Sydney six-day, with Paddy Hehir
1913
National sprint champion
Six Days of New York, with Joe Fogler
Paris six-day, with Joe Fogler
1914
Boston six-day with Alf Hill
New York six-day, with Alfred Grenda
Newark six-day, with Alf Hill
1916
Boston six-day, with Alfred Grenda
1917
New York six-day, with Jake Magin
1919
New York six-day, with Eddie Madden
1920
New York six-day, with Jake Magin
1921
New York six-day, with Maurice Brocco
1922
New York six-day, with Gaetano Belloni
Chicago six-day, with Ernst Kockler
1923
New York six-day, with Alfred Grenda
References
External links
1891 births
1995 deaths
Australian centenarians
Sportspeople from Toms River, New Jersey
Australian male cyclists
American male cyclists
American track cyclists
Cyclists from Victoria (state) Sportsmen from Victoria (state) Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Men centenarians